Chances are that, if you're reading this blog, you've heard of William Lane Craig. But Joe Gorra is the hardest working genius you’ve never heard of in evangelicalism. Among other things, Gorra has worked with Craig as a research assistant for a long time now, and together they have produced a really excellent book, A Reasonable Response: Answers to Tough Questions on God, Christianity, and the Bible (Moody Publishers, 2013), that goes beyond the traditional handbook of Christian apologetics in important and interesting ways.
A Reasonable Response has three interdependent parts that work together to create a book that is more than their sum. There is, first, the selection of questions that people have submitted to Craig's website for a number of years. Together with Craig's answers to them--that's the second interdependent part--these questions have been reprinted in the book. The third essential part is Gorra's editorial work in organizing the book, drawing attention to important features of Craig's answers, and writing a substantial introduction and appendices. Gorra's introduction is worth the price of the book alone and worth discussing in some detail.
More than anything, I believe Gorra's introduction provides a blueprint for taking twentieth-century Christian apologetics into the future at the levels of both the pastor/scholar and the layman. A paradigm work of Christian apologetics in the twentieth century is Josh McDowell's More Than a Carpenter, and it is tempting to think that twenty-first century evangelicalism has outgrown the need for such things, especially in its more cultured circles. Gorra's introduction not only suggests otherwise but also shows how the work of the traditional apologist will always be central to serving the kingdom of God.
The title of the introduction is "A Meditation on the Practice and Ministry of Answering Questions," which summarizes how Gorra thinks about the central task of the Christian apologist. The apologist ministers to others primarily by answering questions well. There are, of course, other types of Christian ministers needed today; one thinks in particular of the ministry of Christian counselors, therapists, and spiritual directors. But the need to provide clear answers to pressing questions about the nature of God and his kingdom remains. Is God real? Can I trust the Bible? Any serious investigation of the Christian faith has to address those central questions, and the answers have to be fairly deep and clear if they're going to sustain a lifetime of Christian commitment.
We are, of course, thankful to Matt Anderson for his book on the questioning life, to which Gorra refers. In particular, Anderson's final chapter is a contemplative and poetic reflection on how to live now with the questions we have about all that is important in life. One way to think of Gorra's introduction is as the practical correlate of Anderson's more contemplative conclusion. In particular, Gorra argues that it is possible--even necessary!--for an apologist to be a genuine, authentic Christian who can clearly and directly respond to important and specific questions about the Christian faith. If Anderson has shown us what the questioning life looks like, Gorra has outlined what the answering life looks like.
If the latter seems difficult to conceive, it's important to be clear about what an answer is: it is an informative reply to a question. It is not, as both Anderson and Gorra point out, a conversation stopper. A good answer provides opportunity for more questions. A vague or otherwise bad answer often stops conversations more than a clear and direct one. Indeed, as readers of A Reasonable Response can see, Craig's clear and direct answers are often invitations for further questions.
Gorra also points out that becoming a genuine, authentic minister of answers is only possible if one's entire life is devoted to Christ. Gorra points out that Craig, whatever one thinks of his theological and philosophical views, "believes that by virtue of the witness of his work . . . can bring the name of God either praise or blame by how he conducts himself." The answers Craig provides in the book demonstrate his attention to and care for the questioner. To have a ministry of answers is not to be a minister of glib responses.
After the introduction, the book is organized into six main parts, not counting the three appendices. The six parts are "Questions on Knowing and Believing What Is Real," "Questions about God," "Questions about the Origins and the Meaning of Life," "Questions about the Afterlife and Evil," "Questions about Jesus Christ and Being His Disciple," and "Questions about Issues of Christian Practice." If you have followed Craig's work over the years, most of the material in these six parts will be familiar. There are, for example, questions and answers concerning the reliability of the New Testament gospels, the orthodoxy of Trinity monotheism, the kalam cosmological argument, and the problem of evil.
To take one example of a question-answer exchange from the book, consider the question about the justification of one of the premises in the moral argument for the existence of God. The question, from someone named Corey, runs to about a page, and this is both typical and helpful: The questions that Craig answers are from real people who couch their questions in all sorts of assumptions and idiosyncrasies. Craig demonstrates real patience in understanding what the questioner is asking, answering the question, and then, usually, reformulating the question more precisely and answering it more thoroughly. The question and answer about the moral argument concerns the second premise:
1. If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.
2. Objective moral values and duties do exist.
3. Therefore, God exists.
The questioner wants to know what the justification for the second premise is. Craig's answer, developed at length, is, in brief, that our moral experience provides the justification for the second premise. What follows in the chapter is a clear account of this.
Throughout the book, Gorra has included notes that draw attention to important aspects of Craig's answers. In this chapter, Gorra highlights Craig's point that "moral skepticism fails to attend to our direct acquaintance with reality even though this is how our moral experience encounters objective moral values and duties." A thoughtful reader would, I think, find a lot to ruminate on in that insight. The remainder of the book is similarly helpful, and this is due to the combination of Craig's experience in answering questions and Gorra's editorial skill.
If you'd like to read a sample of the book, Moody is graciously offering samples right now.
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